


Left Her...Breathless

by SirAnimosity



Category: CSI: Miami
Genre: F/M, Fire, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, Near Death Experiences, No Smut, One Shot, Surprise Kissing, horatio being his sweet self
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:40:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28886235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirAnimosity/pseuds/SirAnimosity
Summary: Based on the episode “Backfire”. season 8 episode 20Spoilers!!Where Calleigh tries to save a boy from a burning house and nearly gets herself killed. Eric goes to the hospital with her. Horatio visits and is really sweet about everything.
Relationships: Calleigh Duquense & Ryan Wolfe, Eric Delko/Calleigh Duquesne, Horatio Caine & Calleigh Duquense, Horatio Caine & Eric Delko
Kudos: 1





	Left Her...Breathless

**Author's Note:**

> I originally posted this on Wattpad. But I thought I’d share it here because I thought it was well written. Let me know if it is lol.

Calleigh and Ryan sped in the CSI Hummer to the scene of a burning house, when they arrived Calleigh jumped out of the car and ran to the door. 

“Calleigh, don’t go in there,” Ryan called out loudly.

“But I saw someone, they could still be alive in there,” she said.

Ryan sighed heavily, “Okay but you have to hurry,” he said following her inside.

The assisting officer, Leah Montoya, was right beside the door, she went to follow Calleigh inside but was stopped by Ryan. “Hey we don’t need any more heroes,” he said, blocking her with his hand.

“But you might need an extra set of hands,” she said, “Okay,” Ryan said letting her through while quickly going inside.

Calleigh and Ryan searched aimlessly through the house calling out to the boy she saw. Ryan decided he’d check downstairs while Calleigh and Leah went up.

Calleigh, coughing violently from the smoke, came up to a set of double doors. She kicked the doors in and saw the boy laying on the floor. “Ryan I found him!” she yelled out.

Ryan’s feet pounded loudly as he ran up the stairs. “Calleigh, come on we have to get out of here now!” he shouted. “We can’t leave him, he’s still breathing!” she cried.

Ryan picked up the boy, “Okay, I got him, I got him, let’s get out of here,” he said grabbing Calleigh’s arm.

Calleigh balled her fist and coughed into it. Ryan managed to get down the stairs with the boy over his shoulder. With a foot out the door, he called out to Calleigh. She was stumbling toward the stairs with Leah when suddenly the floor gave out and they fell through.

Luckily, there was a mattress right under them. Calleigh’s blond hair fell in front of her face as she landed. Leah helped Calleigh off the bed, at her expense, however. The officer’s belt that held her gun holster got stuck in-between the metal frame of the mattress.

Coughing, Calleigh said, “Are you okay? We gotta get out of here!”.

“I can’t, I’m stuck just go I’ll be okay,” she told Calleigh.

Horatio arrived at the scene, “Where’s Calleigh?” he asked Ryan as he was coming outside. “She’s still inside,” he said, carrying the boy to the medics.

-

Ryan brought the boy to the medics, he tried to help resuscitate him. “Ryan, stop. He’s gone,” the medic said. “No, he can’t be,” he said, still doing chest compressions. The medic covered the boy’s body, while Ryan took a quick examination of the boy’s hands.  
-

Horatio helped Calleigh off the mattress, then he went to help the assisting officer who was stuck. Calleigh runs out of the house, dropping to her knees in a coughing fit. 

Horatio eventually got the officer unstuck and helped her outside. He put her arm over his shoulders and carried her out. He called for a medic to take her so he could help Calleigh. 

He walked over to Calleigh quickly, grabbing her arm gently and pulling her to her feet. “Are you alright?” he asked softly. She nodded, still coughing.

“Medic!” Horatio yelled. A medic ran over to assist Calleigh, he put her on a stretcher. “Are you okay?” Ryan asked her repeatedly. She coughed, “I’m fine,” she said with a fake smile.

Suddenly, a violent coughing fit erupted out of Calleigh the medic was forced to put a rebreathing mask on her. She struggled to breathe as they loaded her into the ambulance.

They rushed her off while Horatio and Ryan worked the case, the ME examining the boy’s body. 

-

When they arrived at the hospital, Calleigh was brought into the emergency room. “We have a woman in her late twenties early thirties, blond hair, blue eyes, identified as Calleigh Duquesne, she was brought in from a burning house struggling to breathe,” the ER nurse said as they were speed-walking her into ICU.

Under every light they walked, Calleigh was slipping in and out of consciousness. “Hey, stay with us Calleigh,” one of the nurses said. As they entered the ICU they quickly moved Calleigh to the bed, hooking her up to the EKG and a Nitrous Oxide machine.

Her heartbeat was erratic and her breathing was labored. She was unconscious at this point and virtually unresponsive. 

-

Eric was in Tampa when he received a call from Ryan. “Wolfe?” he said as he answered the phone. “Eric, it’s Calleigh,” he spoke low and slow. “She’s in the hospital, Calleigh is in rough shape, get here as soon as you can,”. “I’m on my way,” Eric said. 

They both hung up at the same time. Eric jumped into his car and raced back to Miami. When he arrived at the hospital, Jesse and Natalia were already there heading inside. 

Eric followed behind them with a slight jog. “Oh my god,” Boa Vista said, “She looks really bad,” Cardoza said. Eric’s jaw dropped, “This is worse than I thought,” he said, fear and worry evident on his face. 

“I’ll call H,” Natalia said. Jesse nodded, “I’ve gotta get back to the scene,” he said leaving.

Eric decided to stay at the hospital until Calleigh woke up. 

Eric wasn’t sure when he fell asleep but he awoke to the sound of his cell ringing, he lifted it to his face to see Horatio. “H?” he asked “Eric, Are you still at the hospital?” he asked. “Yeah, not sure when I fell asleep,” Eric said, voice raspy from sleep.

“Okay, how’s Calleigh doing?” Horatio asked. “Not sure, she still hasn’t woken up yet,” Eric answered.

“I’ll come to see her as soon as I can,” Horatio spoke quickly, “I have to get back to the case, talk to you soon,” he said, hanging up before Eric could say good-bye. 

Eric put his phone back into his pocket and stood up, he walked over to the viewing window and stared at his blond girlfriend lying there. He shook his head. “Why did you have to go in there?” he whispered to himself.

Meanwhile, Calleigh was experiencing something she’s never felt before. An out of body experience. She could see herself lying in the hospital bed, frightened and confused she reached out to touch Eric but she couldn’t touch him. 

She tried to speak to him but he couldn’t hear her. Her bright blue eyes stared at her boyfriend, unable to speak to anyone tears slipped down her cheeks. 

Then suddenly, she felt an arm on her shoulder and she froze. She turned around quickly, it was Patrick the boy from the house fire. “P-Patrick, what are you doing here?” she wiped her tears away quickly. 

“Listen, I need you to prove I’m innocent, you already believe I am,” he pleaded.  
She nodded, “Okay, as long as you help me figure out what’s going on,”. 

“Thank you,” Patrick said.

\---  
Time Skip  
\---

Calleigh’s out of body spirit and the ghost of Patrick stood outside on the lawn of Patrick’s house. This was the moment Calleigh realized the fire wasn’t Patrick’s fault.

But since she wasn’t in her body she had no way of telling Horatio. “Patrick, I know you didn’t do this and I can prove it but I need to get back in my body,” she spoke firmly.

“I don’t know how to get you back,” Patrick said defeatedly. 

Calleigh sighed, she looked around and shook her head. “Why did it have to be me?” she said not meaning for it to be said out loud. 

Patrick shrugged. “I’m happy that you know I’m innocent, but how can you prove it?” he asked.

“Follow me,” she said. The two of them walked toward the middle of the yard and paused. “See how the dirt looks disturbed, meaning someone dug here recently and they didn’t find your prints on any of the shovels,” she explained. 

“But how did you know to look here?” Patrick asked with passion.

As Calleigh went to explain how she figured it out, the only sound that was heard was a defibrillator. The astral projection of Calleigh fell to the ground dramatically. “Calleigh?” Patrick yelled in concern.

“She’s flatlining,” a nurse said nervously. “Come on Calleigh,” Eric said holding her hand. 

“Defib again,” “It’s not working,” “Calleigh please,” nurses voices overlapped and Eric was sweating anxiously.

“She’s not responding to anything,” the nurse looked at the doctor. “Give her a dose of Epinephrine,” the doctor said. 

A nurse took a needle of Epinephrine and stabbed it directly in Calleigh’s chest. She injected the drug quickly. 

Then Calleigh sat up taking in a large amount of air, and she started to cry. Everyone else in the room took a sigh of relief knowing they saved her from the brink of death.

Eric cupped Calleigh’s face, “Okay, here you are, you’re okay,” he repeated softly to her. He wiped her tears with his thumbs, “Everything is going to be okay,”. 

Her glossy blue eyes stared into his bright brown eyes, “I was so scared I was going to lose you,” His voice was shaking. “Please don’t ever don’t ever scare me like that again,” he said as Calleigh pulled him into a hug.

They hugged for a while, as Calleigh wept. 

Horatio stood in the hallway and watched with a small smile on his face. He knows that Internal Affairs doesn’t allow relationships in the workplace if they’re on the same team. But he can’t separate his team, not after Speed and Alex. 

‘As long as they’re happy’ he would repeat to himself. Though he couldn’t bear to look at them together for too long or he’d remember what he had with Marisol. Just hearing her name brings a tear to his eye.

When Eric and Calleigh pulled apart, Horatio was pulled away by a phone call. Eric stepped outside to give Calleigh some much needed space to rest.

Calleigh’s attending physician came up to Eric as he was closing the door. “The smoke from the burning house agitated her pre-existing lung disease, which caused her heart to stop unexpectedly,” he spoke in a comforting tone.

“Is she going to be okay?” Eric asked, worry and anxiety evident on his face.

“She’s going to be fine,” the physician reassured Eric. 

Eric closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. “When she wakes back up tell her she shouldn’t try to speak because she’s still very weak,” Eric nodded. As they were talking Horatio came back, he didn’t say anything just smiled softly at Eric and the physician.

Eric smiled back and nodded at him as he went back inside Calleigh’s room to sit with her until she woke back up.

Horatio spoke with the physician as he waited for Calleigh to wake up, “Do you know when she’ll be able to come back to work?” he asked.

“Soon, I’d say within today or tomorrow,” the physician said, “We just want to run a few more tests just to be sure,” he finished.

Horatio nodded while staring at the ground, like he always does when he’s focused. 

When he looked back up, Calleigh was waking back up with Eric by her side holding her hand tightly. “Hey,” Eric said, gently stroking her blond hair. She tried to speak but he motioned to stop her, “Don’t try to speak okay, the physician said you’d be too weak,” he said softly.

She nodded and mouthed the word ‘pen’ with a hand motion for writing. Eric looked over and grabbed a pen and a notepad, he handed the things to her. 

She jotted down a code quickly, she showed it to Eric but he didn’t understand. He looked at her in confusion, “What does this mean?” he asked, she held up one finger in a ‘wait one second’ motion. 

She wrote down on the notepad again quickly and showed him, ‘Give it to Horatio’ it said, “Okay, I’ll give it to him,” he said looking up at Horatio, who was looking back at him. 

Eric walked out and gave the note to Horatio, “She wanted you to have this,” he said. Horatio looked at the note, his face twitched in confusion. “I’ll bring this to the lab,” he said walking away. 

He left Eric standing there, Eric turned back to face Calleigh. She was watching him. He smiled at her as he walked back into her room. 

He said down next to her, “Hey, you doing okay?” he asked, stroking her soft blond hair. He loved to stroke her hair, she once told him that it was comforting for her, since then he always strokes her hair when she’s in distress. 

She smiled and nodded, Eric smiled back and kissed her on the forehead. “You should be getting out soon,” he said softly, Calleigh nodded. “I love you,” he said, she blushed lightly. 

“I-I l-love you too,” she tried to say, her voice strained hard. “Shhh it’s okay, I know you do please don’t strain yourself,”. Calleigh frowned, Eric softly stroked Calleigh’s cheek with the back of his hand. 

“Don’t frown, love. You’ll get your voice back,” He whispered. She nodded, “Lay in bed with me,” she whispered. Even her own whisper was strained. Eric stood up and pulled back her blankets and laid with her. 

She cupped his cheeks, her soft pale hands against his darker skin. His face was rough from not having shaved since yesterday. She kissed him softly on the lips. 

He pulled her in closer to him, he kissed her again this time a little less soft than before. When they started to makeout, a nurse knocked on the door.

She walked in and saw them laying together, “I apologize if I interrupted anything, we finished running tests. Your physician has the results, he should be in soon,” she said shutting the door on her way out.

The pair giggled while looking into each other's eyes. “Oops,” Eric said with a chuckle. Calleigh smiled widely at him as she pulled him back into a kiss.

One early morning, Calleigh and Eric had stayed in bed until they were called into work. They kissed and made love for hours, and Calleigh told Eric that she wished they could stay like that forever. She would repeat how much she loved him. And he would say the same to her. 

Their chemistry was electric, their love was burning with passion. They knew they could never be apart because they would always come back to each other. 

The physician walked in and apologized, just like the nurse, “So I got your test results back,” he said looking at his clipboard. “And you are lucky, you should be out of here in a few hours, I’m allowing you to go back to work,” he said with a smile. 

“I’ll leave you two love birds to it,” he said nodding as he left. 

-Time Skip-

Horatio stopped by the hospital again, he saw Calleigh and Eric together laughing. He knocked on the door and stepped inside. “Calleigh, Eric,” he said, addressing them, “We got him,” was all he said. 

When he said that, they knew the case was closed. “Who was it?” Calleigh asked. “Patrick’s grandfather, he wanted to collect the insurance money from burning the house down. Killing Patrick was an accident,” he spoke slowly like he usually does.

Calleigh looked down as she nodded. “Do you think I could see Patrick one last time?” she asked Eric. “If that’s what you want,” he looked back at Horatio.

Eric held Calleigh’s hand as they walked outside the hospital. He helped her into the passenger side of the hummer. He got into the driver side, and they drove to the lab. Never going over the speed limit.

When they reached the lab, they went inside and headed for the morgue. They walked into the cool air conditioned space. Calleigh saw Patrick’s lifeless body on a locker slab.

She walked over to him, leaving Eric standing closer to the morgue door, she knelt down by Patrick’s body. Calleigh gently stroked his cheek, letting his spirit finally rest.

“We figured it out, we know what happened. You can rest now,” she whispered.

Then she stood up and pushed the slab back into the locker. After shutting the locker door, she turned around and walked back over to Eric. “I can’t explain it, I just felt like I knew him,” she said as they kissed.

“Well he’s free now,” he said as they left the morgue. 

They left the lab for the hummer. He pulled Calleigh into a kiss before they entered the hummer. Being taken off guard, Calleigh gasped into the kiss, which Eric took the opportunity to deepen the kiss.

Calleigh pulled away before it got too far, “Eric, we’re in public,” she whined. Eric smiled mischievously. 

“Let’s go home,” Eric said as they entered the hummer. 

-

Fin


End file.
